Customize the Sitecore System Tray

The Sitecore Desktop is just like Windows, it’s customizable. Not a lot have utilized it because there’s not much about on how to do so except for typical user-specifics such as wallpaper, desktop shortcuts, etc. Here is one thing you can do to the system tray.

WARNING: Make sure to be cautious when making these changes as these updates the Core database.

1. Click on the Database Selector and select Core.
2. Under the Core database, open the Content Editor.
3. Go to sitecore/content/Applications/Desktop/Tray. You’ll see the Database item there which defines the Database Selector you see to the left of the time in the system tray.
4. Let’s add a new Toolbutton and name it OpenWebsite.
5. In the OpenWebsite item, the key fields under Data are:

• Click: defines the system command that is called when the item is clicked on the tray (for our example use “system:openwebsite”)
• Icon: the icon used on the tray (for our example use “Network/16x16/earth.png”

Play with the other fields there and see how it changes the tray.

*EDIT October 28, 2010. We have moved our blog to http://blog.roundedcube.com and you can now comment on this specific post at http://www.roundedcube.com/WhatsNew/Blog/customize-the-sitecore-system-tray

Dynamic Sitecore Desktop

I was playing around with Sitecore and I saw John West’s way of randomizing the desktop wallpaper. He uses a logging in pipeline processor that essentially updates the Wallpaper property of the user. It’s pretty cool….so I get to thinking…let me try to make it more dynamic.

I’ve always liked how the new HTC or Droid phones’ “desktop”. They show the nice nifty time/date plus the weather. It’s pretty cool to see something quick like that. In fact, there’s an HTC Home port to Windows on CodePlex that does just that. So, why not in Sitecore? Well, watch the video and tell me what you think? It’s not exactly like the Droid or HTC but you get the idea.




I basically updated the Shell application (Shell.xml) to include some nifty jQuery stuff. Sitecore does support jQuery (the noconflict version) and allows us to do some cool jQuery. In fact, you’ll see the library included with the install:

/sitecore/shell/controls/lib/jQuery/jquery.noconflict.js

Anyway, I created a UI widget library that essentially generate the time and weather on a layer on top of the desktop layer. This exercise had no C# code involved but I do want to warn you that this could bring Sitecore down. So just be careful.

I thought that this was pretty nifty and could open a new set of apps, interactions, and UI for Sitecore. If there’s enough interest, I might continue this line of widget apps and maybe make a library of it. What kind of things do you think would be useful to content editors, developers, etc? Or maybe a game like Minesweeper?

*EDIT October 28, 2010. We have moved our blog to http://blog.roundedcube.com and you can now comment on this specific post at http://www.roundedcube.com/WhatsNew/Blog/dynamic-sitecore-desktop

Sitecore to Support MVC...What Do You Think?

When I first saw that Sitecore is going to support the MVC architecture in a future release, I wasn’t sure exactly what that means. I have some experience with MVC. I know about ASP.NET’s implementation and also the S#arp Architecture that improves upon Microsoft’s version. To me, MVC architecture is great with applications. It allows me to separate (decouple) the various layers and actually make coding them a lot easier and focused. So I ask, is this a way for Sitecore to tell us to start building apps with the Sitecore framework as well?

I would really like to know up to what level the MVC support will be. Will there be technology preview? I would like to get a hand on an alpha release and see how it compares with the other architectures. I’d like to be able to play with it using ASP.NET MVC Web controls or other commercial libraries. Maybe Sitecore will just support it to allow those parts of a Website that requires more complex logic, that may be easier to implement with MVC, that are more code-heavy to implement. I don’t see it being used on a Website which is what a CMS is for. But, I do see it being used for an Intranet or even Sitecore applications.

I’ve seen some forum posts and inquiries about MVC within Sitecore. I’m not sure exactly what they are doing so I can’t speak for them. However, if you’re reading this and have done it, comment back or post a link to your blog that talks about it. I think there are tons of people wondering about how one decides on using MVC or just typical ASP.NET form-based approach.

If you have your own take on this….let us know.

*EDIT October 28, 2010. We have moved our blog to http://blog.roundedcube.com and you can now comment on this specific post at http://www.roundedcube.com/WhatsNew/Blog/sitecore-to-support-mvc-what-do-you-think